Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Paul Berton doesn't like moulded plastic. From yesterday's editorial in the London Free Press;

Moulded plastic that comes wrapped around most 21st century products is not recyclable, and won't break down in the landfill site for thousands of years....

[G]arbage collectors everywhere should refuse to pick up any of this extra post-holiday trash.

This would not simply encourage, but economically force consumers to leave that kind of packaging at the store.

This goes to show that socialists should base their arguments on concepts such as hope, change, and the delicious taste of rationed chocolate, rather than attempting to think economically. "The store" is hardly the only place one could leave plastic garbage, and it's far from the most convenient.

A moment's thought suggests that the economic thing to do under such a breach of contract by the city would be to leave the forbidden plastic garbage somewhere, anywhere, convenient. Since nobody would be able to cancel their fraudulent garbage service and use the money to hire people who are willing to do the job the sanitation department are supposedly being paid for, why not?

Smarter generations past established sanitation departments to prevent these from being rational solutions to the question of what to do with garbage in the city. Let's not make it in people's interest to dump their trash on the neighbour's lawn.

This just in: don't collect rocks. Some may not break down ever. If we keep collecting them and burying them, there will be no landfill place left on earth. Pass it on. Humanity's continued existence depends upon it.

Another one of his editorials says we need to do away with all the one way streets to make it safer for pedestrians.Quickly now, which London route sounds more inviting: Richmond Street or Queens Avenue? Which one would you show a visitor? Where would you go for a walk?One-way streets move traffic efficiently, but they do not make for friendly pedestrian environments.

I didn't quite get the connection there. Personally, I prefer walking along Queens Ave. Maybe it's just me...

Paul Berton is a fool. Only once has this guy actually ridiculed council (sinkhole downtown). Everything he has proposed the city should initiate will make private enterprise run for the hills.

How the hell is eliminating one way streets going to make pedestrians feel more safe? Has Berton ever heard of New York City?

All it will do for London, a city with no crosstown expressway, will make downtown deteriorate further. Nobody will want to work or shop downtown if traffic has to use a bunch of narrow two way streets. One way streets are definitely needed for downtown.

My thought was that a one way street is actually safer for a pedestrian to cross, since you only need to look the one direction the traffic was coming from. Then, knowing the skill of some London drivers...well, maybe we still need to look both ways just to be sure.

But as far as the plastic packaging, can't it be recycled into...more plastic packaging, and so on?

In my culture we celebrate by pitching trash wherever it does not cost us money. If it costs other people money, well, that is a decision made by Set, The Snake God. I am happy to live in Canada where my culture is accomodated and where law enforcement people appease my culture.

If the state wants to sanction other people, using their money, that is fine. For me, I will, like my fellow Tapeworm-Canadians, just burrow deeper into the underground economy. Taxes are for taxpayers to pay, and taxspenders to spend. Better to be a taxspender than a taxpayer.